2012 was wild year outdoors

Saturday

Dec 29, 2012 at 8:50 PM

Bob McNally

With the New Year rushing upon us in just a couple days, it seems fitting to recall some of the amazing, bizarre and bewildering things that occurred in the outdoor-related world over the last 12 months.

» Giant bucks are regularly taken in Georgia. But one of the biggest bucks ever collected in the state was taken early during the 2012 fall hunting season. Fletcher Culpepper of Worth County bagged a 250-pound, 23-point whitetail, which will rank in the state's top five bucks.

» Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service law enforcement officers completed a comprehensive investigation last fall that included more than 200 criminal violations by 21 individuals in Orange, Lake, Osceola, Polk and St. Lucie counties. In one case, the ring ordered 900 pounds of illegally taken venison and 500 pounds of illegal snook.

» Rabbit hunters rarely drown, but 28-year-old Christopher Johnson of Merritt Island came close after falling down a well one autumn Saturday morning. He was legally night-hunting rabbits on the island when he crashed through plywood boards covering the well and tumbled down the shaft. He spent the next eight hours trying to stay afloat in 12 feet of cold water.

Johnson had to tread water and brace himself against the wall to keep from drowning. No one heard his cries for help until mid-morning, when Navy veteran Jerry Watkins thought he heard someone in distress while walking his dog. Watkins called 911 and authorities arrived soon. They lowered a rope and ladder into the well. Johnson tied the rope around his torso and climbed out unharmed.

» Tangy rabbit nachos, vegetarian lasagna, potato soup, a salsa-inspired raccoon dip and fried raccoon did not divert attention from the headliner at the 13th Squirrel Fest held in Romney, W.Va., the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

"With the current state of the presidency, we probably ought to get used to eating more wildlife," said Winchester resident Kevin Moore, 40, an attendee.

» Missouri hunters took 204,668 deer during the November portion of the state firearms deer season, topping the past four years' harvests and confirming predictions by the Missouri Department of Conservation. This year's statewide November deer harvest was 7.7 percent more than last year.

The harvest total is more deer than many states have in total whitetail population.

» Grizzly bear protection is likely to be pulled off by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service within two years. This came from Interior secretary Ken Salazar in a letter earlier this year to Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead.

» A wild boar injured four people, including a police officer, in a residential neighborhood of Berlin.

The 265-pound boar bit a 74-year-old man on the back and leg and knocked a 74-year-old woman to the ground and injured her hip in the Charlottenburg area of the German capital. It also bit a 24-year-old woman before she climbed atop a parked car to safety. All three were treated in a hospital.

When a police officer arrived, the boar attacked him and cut his leg before he killed the animal with multiple gun shots.

» A $233,830 EPA grant will be used by the non-profit Wildlife Forever to launch a new public information campaign informing waterfowl hunters how to fight the spread of invasive species like zebra mussels by properly cleaning their waders, decoys and their hunting dogs. WF conservation director Pat Conzemius said the campaign targets waterfowl hunters because they are largely ignored in the fight against invasive species.

» Chad Hebert says he learned a valuable lesson last fall after a 10-point buck deer he was tracking for his 13-year-old son burst out of a thicket and landed the Beauregard Parish, La., hunter in a hospital for two days.

"I'll never again track a deer unarmed," Hebert said. "I'm just so thankful because it could have been much worse."

» Barred owls this year attacked at least six visitors to Soaring Eagle Park in Sammamish, Wash., resulting in closing the facility to the public. Park Ranger Mary Welborn said owls are attracted to women's pony tails or to those wearing headphones.

"People have been clawed enough to draw blood," said Welborn.

» Black bear hunting proved popular in Maryland this fall, and nearly seven decades separated the youngest and oldest hunters who harvested black bears in the Maryland hunt. A record number of 92 bears were collected during the five-day hunt, according to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources.

Aurora Wilhelm, 7, became the youngest hunter to take a bear since the hunt was reinstated in 2004. Her hefty male bruin weighed 232-pounds.

» Bald eagles were highly endangered in 1973 when there were an estimated 88 Florida nests. This year, based on a 2011 aerial survey, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission estimated there are 1,457 active bald eagle nests in the Sunshine State, a great many in Northeast Florida.

» Road-killed deer was found in the Red Flower Chinese Restaurant in Williamsburg, Ky., earlier this year, resulting in a state health inspector closing the eatery. State inspector Paul Lawson said the restaurant owner's son apparently brought the dead deer into the restaurant kitchen but claimed he didn't plan to serve it to customers.

» Hand grenade fishing is illegal in most places. That surely came to mind last summer when Springfield, Mo., angler Matt Tucker hooked a tangled old sock with a crankbait while fishing on Fellows Lake.

Tucker, a firefighter and Army veteran, looked inside the sock and recognized a Vietnam-era hand grenade with the pin still attached.

"I felt the weight to it and the ridges of the pineapple and knew what it was," said Tucker. "I looked at it and found it wasn't a dud."

Authorities were contacted, and the grenade was disposed of with care.

» Alligator heads aren't regularly used as weapons except by live alligators. But it did occur this year when the ex-girlfriend of Arkansas State Sen. Jeremy Hutchinson was charged with third-degree domestic battery after allegedly striking him in the head with a preserved (mounted) alligator head during a domestic dispute. Julie McGee, 39, of Little Rock, was booked into the Pulaski County Jail after Hutchinson called police to his home late one night.

» Cows and horses are much more likely to injure Americans than poisonous snakes, sharks and alligators. That's comes from the Center for Disease Control database and released earlier this year in a report: "Fatalities From Venomous and Non-venomous Animals in the United States (1999-2007)."

It reveals the most deadly animals in the U.S. are livestock, including cows and horses. Of 1,802 animal-related fatalities in the study period, nine were alligator-related, 10 from marine animals (including sharks) and 59 from poisonous snakes or lizards.

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